Submissive and Considerate

Peter 3:1-7

As Peter wraps up his thoughts about submitting to authority, he takes is home. The relationship between a husband and a wife has been under attack from the beginning of our story. Imagine the first couple of fights that Adam and Eve had. The fruit incident, Eve weakness and Adam not protecting her. The first relocation, moving from the garden to the desert had to be quite the adjustment relationally as they lay on the hard floor after working in the fields all day and Eve is experiencing the discomfort of growing a child in her belly. Then of course the difficulty of losing a son. How do you deal with the burying a child, especially when he was murdered by his very own brother?

Needless to say, marriage has been on attack for a long time. Peter lends us insight into how the two partners are to treat each other. Though this isn't all of Peter's marriage advice, I believe it is a great place to start. Wives are to be submissive. It is important to note that Peter is writing at the time when arranged marriages were prevalent. It would make sense to tell the wives to submit and tell the husbands to be considerate. They aren't necessarily the kind of relationships that form in the fairy tales.

God always calls us to work through authority. Peter tells wives to be submissive not to make their husbands feel good about themselves but that in so doing they would bring glory to God. Husbands will eventually be called to go a step further than just being considerate. They will be called to love their wives in the same way that Christ loved the church.

Bottom line... marriage has been under attack for as long as our story has been going on. It is important that we as believers set the example instead of blending into a society that has missed the mark.

Heart and Soul,
BAG
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